Saturday’s league defeat to Fleetwood was manager Russell Slade’s fifth league game in charge and he has still to record a victory.

Several people asked me whether this is a record for a new Coventry manager. I’ve looked back at previous incoming managers (excluding caretakers) and Russell has some way to go to break the record, set in 1967 by Noel Cantwell.

The Irishman, in his first management post, took over from Jimmy Hill before the Tottenham home game on October 14th and did not record his first win until December 16 when a Bobby Gould hat-trick helped secure a 5-1 victory over Burnley. In his first nine league games in charge the team drew four and lost five.

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Other incoming managers who had poor starts are Joe Mercer in 1972 – his team failed to win any of their first six games, and Terry Butcher who despite a thrilling 5-4 League Cup win over Nottingham Forest, similarly failed to win six league games after succeeding John Sillett in 1990. On the flip side, the best incoming manager has to be Roland Nilsson who was unbeaten in his first 11 league games after replacing Gordon Strachan in September 2001.

Roland Nilsson

The great Harry Storer won his first five games at the start of his second stint as manager in 1948 – pulling the team away from the Second Division basement. In 1961 Jimmy Hill won four of his first five games in charge after replacing Billy Frith.

Coventry City’s relegation-threatened team are now just 90 minutes from Wembley after a successful penalty shoot-out at Swansea’s Liberty Stadium on Tuesday evening. After a stuttering 90 minutes the young Sky Blues team made their experience count from the penalty spot with George Thomas, Gael Bigirimana, Kyel Reid and Ruben Lameiras all netting and Reice Charles-Cook saving two of the four Swansea efforts.

The penalty shoot-out success ended a run of three losses from similar sudden death endings. Last season they lost at Rochdale and Yeovil and in 2013 they lost at Leyton Orient, managed at the time by Russell Slade.

The last victory from a penalty competition before Tuesday was a Football League Trophy game against Sheffield United in 2012 when a Joe Murphy masterclass helped the Sky Blues to a 4-1 victory. City’s record in all shoot-outs since their first at Reading in the Simod (Full Members) Cup in 1988, is now played nine, won four and lost five.